is always rendered by the Greek 2 (Sigma), whereas the Greek Z (Zeta) universally corresponds to the Hebrew T (Zayin), as it does also in the word Na^upaioc. This rule is universal, which no one can rightly oppose without bringing forward examples to the contrary. Consider what the sound and learned Ililler says on this subject, Syntagm. hermen. p. 347, etc., and Onom. Sacr., pp. 695, 701, 893 ; and compare his remarks with I. H., a Seelen,1 medit. exeg., p. 632. This belongs to the etymology of the name Nazareth ; it does not, however, establish the alle gory. For neither is there any reason why we should ascribe the character of a Levitical Nazarite to Christ (see Matt. xi. 19), nor why we should think that the scope of the prophecy is exhausted by any signification of the word NZR, ">T3.
It was predicted by Micah, that Christ should go forth from Bethlehem : Bethlehem, DH? JV3, signifies house of bread, and Christ is the Bread of Life. But who would have said that the prophecy of Micah was fulfilled by Christ being the bread of life ? We know that the town where Christ was born was in tended by the prophecy ; in like manner, the town where He grew up ; and the common surname which thence arose was in dicated by the prediction, " Na^a/og xX^ffsra/," " He shall be called a Nazarene :" and therefore the particle on2 is prefixed by the evangelist, as is the custom in citing testimonies. Although at what time that prophet flourished by whom this prediction was uttered ; whether the town of Nazareth, of which no other mention occurs in the Old Testament, was then of any account or not ; whether that prophet was himself a Nazarene, and de posited this remarkable verse at Nazareth, or whether he left it to posterity, conveyed by word of mouth alone, or also com mitted to writing,3 whence St Matthew obtained it, who knows ? what signifies it to know? In heaven, some stars illumine
1 JOHN HENRY A SEELEN, an historian and philologist of the Academy of Lubeck, born in the year 1688. He published his Meditationes Exegeticoe at Lubeck, 1732.— (I. B.)
2 The literal meaning of on is that ; but in cases like the present it has, by the Greek idiom, merely the force which inverted commas have in English. -(I. B.)
3 For the prophets have uttered many things which were not inserted in their public writings. — B. G. V.